Back in 1999 baseball decided to have Corporate Sponsor Turn Ahead The Clock Night. The idea was that since retro jerseys were fun and cool, why not take a look at the future?
The Times recap from the next day tells us that a kid pitcher named Kris Benson beat the Mets 5-1. Orel Hershiser showed himself to be no fool:
”We should have had a big top,” Hershiser said. ”If we can’t sell the product the way it is, maybe we should give it a rest.”
The Times agreed:
In keeping with the futuristic fashion, the video screen showed Mets players with green faces or space helmets. Henderson appeared there with long pointed ears and a third eye in the middle of his forehead. But the Mets’ manager, Bobby Valentine, thought the silver-and-black shirts showed baseball’s ”progressive” thinking.
Some teams such as the Yankees told Bud Selig to go jump in a lake. Even the Expos declined – maybe the Nationals jerseys would have tipped off the fans that something wasn’t right.
The Mets of course had to go all-in. On July 27, 1999 the Mets let us know that in the year 2021 they planned to play on planet Mercury.
Now, I guess it was a fun promotion and the Mets didn’t dream it up so we can’t totally kill them….but they do have a way of never getting things right.
The Giants went this route. Clearly a major departure but in the scheme of things somehow not awful.
The Cardinals stayed pretty traditional….
The Brewers put the beer barrel man on their caps. Maybe the Mets could do something cool? Maybe a Mr. Met hat with some funky orange jerseys? Well…….
The Mets of course went the stupid route, and of course their jerseys were black.
No blue, no orange.
Ironically the planet itself looks somewhat orange.
Here’s something really interesting about life on Mercury. In 2021 Mercury can support two teams, the Mets and the Fire!
In 1998 the Mariners held Turn Ahead night and included banners for three additional teams: The Pluto Mighty Pups (clearly Disney owned), the Saturn Rings and the Mercury Fire.
Perhaps the Fire were the Seattle Pilots of outer space and left Mercury after one year.
I wonder if Mercury Series tickets between the Mets and Fire will be hard to come by in 2021?
Maybe the Mercury Fire will have a Tom Seaver Rotunda that really ticks their fans off?
Someone mentioned that the Shea scoreboard flashed that Octavio Dotel pitched (pitches?) the first Mets no-hitter in 2012. That suggests Omar Minaya will still be the GM in 2012 and still signing 39 year olds.
The really sad part is that 10 years later I wouldn’t mind having one of the Mercury Mets hats. I think it would be a great symbol of protest if Mets fans all started wearing them to let Jeff Wilpon and David Howard know they can take their team to Mercury if they want. I’ve looked around the internet and don’t see any caps for sale. I guess I’ll just wait until 2021 and buy one when the Mets visit the N.Y. Burros at Citi Field.
If David Howard will seeks to fill his ballpark later this year, how about the first Turn Ahead The Clock Old-Timers Day? Get Lincoln-Mercury to pay for caps for the first 25,000 fans and invite the 1999 Mets back. That team made the playoffs…they don’t have to play, just come out and wear replica Mercury Mets stuff so we can all have a good laugh. I’d show up for that in a second.
Doing it the first time was dopey. Admitting it was dopey and making it a bizarre tradition every 10 years would be AWESOME.
Some Mercury Mets links which helped me gather the info for this piece:
- Mets Guy In Michigan wrote a piece about the team earlier this year.
- This site has pictures of most of the Turn Ahead Jerseys
- Baseball reference list of games featuring Turn Ahead jerseys.
- Uni Watch’s great article about the original Turn Ahead Night which sounds like it was actually cool.
- Old article from the Village Voice
Main Mets Police page (New York not Mercury)
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Some comments and memories that came in once I announced I was working on this post:
I remember Turn Ahead the Clock Night…at least we had better jerseys than the Pirates that night! Those were terrible.
I also remember Rickey “Three Eyes” Henderson on DiamondVision, along with Orel Hershiser wearing a Star Trek VISOR.
My dad still has the Mercury Mets jersey, on occasion wearing it with pride to games.
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I can tell you the Mets had a raffle and one person in each deck won a signed Mercury Mets jersey. I had plan tickets in the Mezzanine at that time and entered the contest and I won a Roger Cedeno Mercury Mets jersey. It still hangs in a closet.
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